“Our enemies are innovative and resourceful, and so are we. They never stop thinking about new ways to harm our country and our people, and neither do we.” - George W. Bush

Wednesday, July 09, 2014

The US Elective Monarchy and the Imperial Presidency

Live stupid and you get stupid

In 2012, after a series of high-profile journalist arrests at Occupy protests, the United States dropped 27 places in Reporters Without Borders’ World Press Freedom Index, landing in 47th place. The following year, saw some progress as the U.S. climbed back up to 33rd place, but the last year has erased those gains landing us back at 46th.

142 comments:

Tue Jul 01, 02:10:00 AM EDTThose young men were doomed when their so-called leaders and protectors flooded the occupied territories with thousands of angry young men looking for the three unfortunate boys. Now that they are dead, Netanyahu is all but guaranteeing that more young men and children will die on both sides. Is Netanjahu so foolish that he does not realize that there are killers and sociopaths that will do their best to keep up the murder-cycle and raise the ante? Netanyahu knows exactly what will happen and nothing will ever change until reasonable people get rid of such political leaders.

One week later:

Israeli jets and naval gunfire pounded the Gaza Strip on Tuesday, killing more than 20 people and injuring dozens more, as the government of Binyamin Netanyahu launched a large-scale military operation against the Islamist militant group Hamas in the coastal enclave.

Israel announced it had authorised the call-up of up to 40,000 reservists for a possible ground operation, even as it began moving convoys of additional tanks and other armour to the Gaza border.

Iron Dome is impressive though. Figures out which rockets are going to land harmlessly and ignores those. The other ones, successful intercepts approach 100%. This is how you waste taxpayer dollars, if you must.

Political and military suppression will not always trump purloined military technology. It never has. It incentivizes it. The Israeli brand has been broken by right-wing Israeli politicians. Netanyahu owns this latest debacle.

This is an article by the late Uri Elitzur, which was written 12 years ago, but remained unpublished. It is as relevant today as it was at the time.

The Palestinian people has declared war on us, and we must respond with war. Not an operation, not a slow-moving one, not low-intensity, not controlled escalation, no destruction of terror infrastructure, no targeted killings. Enough with the oblique references. This is a war. Words have meanings. This is a war. It is not a war against terror, and not a war against extremists, and not even a war against the Palestinian Authority. These too are forms of avoiding reality. This is a war between two people. Who is the enemy? The Palestinian people. Why? Ask them, they started.

I don’t know why it’s so hard for us to define reality with the simple words that language puts at our disposal. Why do we have to make up a new name for the war every other week, just to avoid calling it by its name. What’s so horrifying about understanding that the entire Palestinian people is the enemy? Every war is between two peoples, and in every war the people who started the war, that whole people, is the enemy. A declaration of war is not a war crime. Responding with war certainly is not. Nor is the use of the word “war”, nor a clear definition who the enemy is. Au contraire: the morality of war (yes, there is such a thing) is founded on the assumption that there are wars in this world, and that war is not the normal state of things, and that in wars the enemy is usually an entire people, including its elderly and its women, its cities and its villages, its property and its infrastructure.

And the morality of war knows that it is not possible to refrain from hurting enemy civilians. It does not condemn the British air force, which bombed and totally destroyed the German city of Dresden, or the US planes that destroyed the cities of Poland and wrecked half of Budapest, places whose wretched residents had never done a thing to America, but which had to be destroyed in order to win the war against evil. The morals of war do not require that Russia be brought to trial, though it bombs and destroys towns and neighborhoods in Chechnya. It does not denounce the UN Peacekeeping Forces for killing hundreds of civilians in Angola, nor the NATO forces who bombed Milosevic’s Belgrade, a city with a million civilians, elderly, babies, women, and children. The morals of war accept as correct in principle, not only politically, what America has done in Afghanistan, including the massive bombing of populated places, including the creation of a refugee stream of hundreds of thousands of people who escaped the horrors of war, for thousands of whom there is no home to return to.

And in our war this is sevenfold more correct, because the enemy soldiers hide out among the population, and it is only through its support that they can fight. Behind every terrorist stand dozens of men and women, without whom he could not engage in terrorism. Actors in the war are those who incite in mosques, who write the murderous curricula for schools, who give shelter, who provide vehicles, and all those who honor and give them their moral support. They are all enemy combatants, and their blood shall be on all their heads. Now this also includes the mothers of the martyrs, who send them to hell with flowers and kisses. They should follow their sons, nothing would be more just. They should go, as should the physical homes in which they raised the snakes. Otherwise, more little snakes will be raised there.

I thought the subject of Deuce's initial post was a topical one. Then the next 14 are about Israel. These followed by some dreamer from Idaho who while talking about ospreys and eagles still manages to get one of his posts pulled by the blog administrator. Brilliant.

Oh well.

INFORMATION SACRIFICED TO NATIONAL SECURITY AND SURVEILLANCE

Countries that pride themselves on being democracies and respecting the rule of law have not set an example, far from it. Freedom of information is too often sacrificed to an overly broad and abusive interpretation of national security needs, marking a disturbing retreat from democratic practices. Investigative journalism often suffers as a result.

This has been the case in the United States (46th), which fell 13 places, one of the most significant declines, amid increased efforts to track down whistleblowers and the sources of leaks. The trial and conviction of Private Bradley Manning and the pursuit of NSA analyst Edward Snowden were warnings to all those thinking of assisting in the disclosure of sensitive information that would clearly be in the public interest.

US journalists were stunned by the Department of Justice’s seizure of Associated Press phone records without warning in order to identify the source of a CIA leak. It served as a reminder of the urgent need for a “shield law” to protect the confidentiality of journalists’ sources at the federal level. The revival of the legislative process is little consolation for James Risen of The New York Times, who is subject to a court order to testify against a former CIA employee accused of leaking classified information. And less still for Barrett Brown, a young freelance journalist facing 105 years in prison in connection with the posting of information that hackers obtained from Statfor, a private intelligence company with close ties to the federal government.

The United Kingdom (33rd, -3) distinguished itself in the war on terror by the disgraceful pressure it put on The Guardian newspaper and by its detention of David Miranda, journalist Glenn Greenwald’s partner and assistant, for nine hours. Both the US and UK authorities seem obsessed with hunting down whistleblowers instead of adopting legislation to rein in abusive surveillance practices that negate privacy, a democratic value cherished in both countries.

The “special intelligence protection bill” that the National Diet in Japan (59th, - 5) adopted in late 2013 would reduce government transparency on such key national issues as nuclear power and relations with the United States, now enshrined as taboos. Investigative journalism, public interest and the confidentiality of journalists’ sources are all being sacrificed by legislators bent on ensuring that their country’s image is spared embarrassing revelations.

The “war on terror” is also being exploited by governments that are quick to treat journalists as “threats to national security.” Dozens of journalists have been jailed on this pretext in Turkey (154th), especially for covering the Kurdish issue. In Morocco, unchanged in 136th position, the authorities readily confused journalism with terrorism since the case of online newspaper editor Ali Anouzla. In Israel (96th, +17), freedom of information is often sacrificed to purported security requirements.

In India’s northern Kashmir region, mobile Internet and communications are suspended in response to any unrest. In the north of Sri Lanka (165th, -2), the army reigns supreme, tolerating no challenge to the official vision of the “pacification” process in Tamil separatism’s former strongholds. Alarmed by the Arab Spring turmoil, authoritarian regimes in the Arabian Peninsula and Central Asia have stepped up media censorship and surveillance to head off any “attempt at destabilization.”

Press Freedom________________________________________May 3rd marks the annual commemoration of World Press Freedom Day. The United States values freedom of the press as a key component of democratic governance. Democratic societies are not infallible, but they are accountable, and the exchange of ideas is the foundation for accountable governance. In the U.S. and in many places around the world, the press fosters active debate, provides investigative reporting, and serves as a forum to express different points of view, particularly on behalf of those who are marginalized in society. The U.S. commends journalists around the world for the important role they play, and for their commitment to the free exchange of ideas.The U.S. in particular salutes those in the press who courageously do their work at great risk. The press is often a target of retaliation by those who feel threatened by freedom of expression and transparency in democratic processes. Journalists are often the first to uncover corruption, to report from the front lines of conflict zones, and to highlight missteps by governments. This work places many journalists in danger, and it is the duty of governments and citizens worldwide to speak out for their protection and for their vital role in open societies.the truth.

After a year of attacks on whistleblowers and digital journalists and revelations about mass surveillance, the United States plunged 13 spots in the group's global press freedom rankings to number 46.

Reporters Without Borders writes that the U.S. faced "one of the most significant declines" in the world last year. Even the United Kingdom, whose sustained campaign to criminalize the Guardian's reporters and intimidate journalists has made headlines around the world, dropped only three spots, to number 33. The U.S. fell as many spots as Paraguay, where "the pressure on journalists to censor themselves keeps on mounting."

We used to have wonderful female writers back when our nation could still think.

I like Rita Mae Brown. Molly Bolt from Robyfruit Jungle is Huckleberry Finn in a skirt. And RMB also wrote a great novel about womenfolk serving in the Army of Northern Virginia disguised as male butternuts.

"Hamas knows that even if all its ammunition fell on Israel in one fell swoop, it would not bring Israel to its knees. The threat of rockets from Gaza is a nuisance whose damage-causing ability is limited. In the past, the ratio of rockets to Israeli fatalities was one fatality per 100 rockets. In Operation Pillar pf Defense, this ratio already rose to 1:250. The interceptor systems have proved themselves wonderfully well, causing Hamas a great deal of frustration," Inbar declares. An Israeli security source said in the past that analyzing and weighing Iron Dome's performance in the previous campaigns showed that the system had averaged 90% success. The system has been undergoing regular improvements, thanks to software and hardware revisions jointly led by Rafael engineers and air defense personnel, following constant analysis of various interception events. Improvements and upgrading of the software system are today enabling Iron Dome to achieve very high interception rates even for the Fajr-5 rockets and their copies threatening cities in the central region. At the same time, the cost of each interception was and remains high: the estimated cost of one Tamir missile interceptor used in the Iron Dome system is $100,000.

The last remaining strains of smallpox are kept in highly protected government laboratories in Russia and at the Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta. And, apparently, in a dusty cardboard box in an old storage room in Maryland. The CDC said today that government workers had found six freeze-dried vials of the Variola virus, which causes smallpox, in a storage room at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland last week. Each test tube had a label on it that said "variola," which was a tip-off, but the agency did genetic testing to confirm that the viruses were, in fact, smallpox.

1. The top administrators at the VA put out a memo to all regional directors of the veteran's administration to turtle up and refrain from responding to questions from Congress or offering commentary on the ongoing VA crisis.

2. After much delay, the administration will, in a few days, allow members of Congress to visit some of the holding facilities were the children who have recently flooded the borders are being held. They will not only not be able to interview the children (something that is somewhat understandable) but they will also not be allowed to take pictures, make any type recordings, or even question any of the staff at these facilities. Did I mention we are talking members of the US Congress.

I put up a study yesterday that was published in the NYT indicating that people's life long party affinity or rather whether they end up liberal or conservative seems to be affected significantly by what is happening at the the time young people become politically aware. If there is truth in the study, Obama's influence may have an effect decades into the future.

Happened to Reagan, the man that could not 'remember' Iran-Contra.Happened to LBJ, sunk so low he would not run for reelectionHappened to Nixon, he resigned rather than fight to the finishHappened to Clinton, he was impeachedHappened to GW Bush, becoming a caricature that just fell off the earth,

Those are terms used to describe House Speaker John Boehner and his plan to sue President Barack Obama. And those are just from from critics on the right.

Since Boehner announced his intention nearly two weeks ago, reaction has been mixed — at best.

Republican anger over the President’s sidestepping of a stalemated Congress to use his “pen and phone” on issues of immigration, minimum wage, LGBT rights and energy production is for real and far reaching.

Boehner’s attempt to answer what he considers a rogue presidency is to sue.

“The President has circumvented the American people and their elected representatives through executive action, changing and creating his own laws, and excusing himself from enforcing statutes he is sworn to uphold,” Boehner wrote in an op-ed on CNN.com over the weekend.

But sharp critics say taking Obama to court isn’t the right one.

Naysayers on the right …

Chief among them is Erick Erickson, editor of the conservative blog Red State.

“John Boehner’s lawsuit is nothing more than political theater and a further Republican waste of taxpayer dollars,” he wrote Monday.

He also said Boehner needs to “man up” in more ways than one.

“John Boehner and the House Republicans may lack the testicular fortitude to fight President Obama,” Erickson wrote.

“Boehner and Beltway Republicans are essentially saying, ‘We can’t use our power because Obama and his media friends would say mean things about us. But our lunatic conservative base is demanding action. So let us file a lawsuit so we can say we did something,’ ” McCarthy wrote (sarcastically), dissecting Boehner’s suit threat.

“Now that’s leadership!” McCarthy added.

For those two, anything short of impeachment is weak and chalked up to political drama in an election year.

Proof that political foes do see eye to eye, the White House gleefully seized the opportunity to promote Erickson.

Spokesman Eric Schultz tweeted, “I had a bunch of reporters ask me for response to Boehner op-ed this weekend. Guess I should have sent them here,” which is a link to Erickson’s column.

While I would like the House to push impeachment merely for the catharsis it would provide, given that Harry Reid and the Dems control the Senate, at this time I can only describe any effort at impeachment as being rather 'feckless'.

The truth, Q, it that it is all 'political'.The Boehner program will be ineffective, because of that they are incompetent and are the lazy way forward.

To bring forth Articles of Impeachment would be more difficult, would focus the nation on the issues and in that way not be futile It is the way that the Constitution, a political document presents as the responsible way for the Congress to challenge the President..

Then any of the "Legal" remedies are feckless, because what Obama is doing is neither illegal, nor feckless.But eminently politically expedient.

Good lord, rat, have you been too busy going through your 'famous quotes' postings to see what has been going on for the past year or so. Of course what he is doing illegal. SCOTUS has said so. Numerous times.

It is expedient only in the sense that it promotes a desired effect, his desired effect. It fits the secondary meaning of feckless, they are actions brought about because of his laziness and arrogance. Rather than accept the separation of powers laid out in the Constitution, he says "I will not accept No." The result of his arrogance can be seen at the borders today. And when things hit the fan his solution is always the same, give me more money.

Why in the world would the GOP want to bring impeachment hearings now when if the president was impeached the results in the Senate are a forgone conclusion? Even if the GOP was to take over the Senate by a slight margin, the result would probably be the same given the required number of votes.

A lawsuit would also be hard since SCOTUS is usually reluctant to arbitrate between government branches. However, if Boenher is granted standing, which I think he should be given that Obama's misadventures are so egregious, longstanding, and continuing, the recent string of smackdowns Obama has received at the hands of this Court should give Boehner some hope of winning.

The Pentagon once again grounds the F-35. The next-generation F-35, the most expensive plane ever built, may be too dangerous to fly. Why is Congress keeping it alive?

Effectively saying that the most expensive warplane in American history is too dangerous to fly is a huge public relations blow for the Pentagon, which has been under fire for years for allowing the plane's costs to increase even as its delivery time continued to slide right...

One thing the grounding won't do, however, is derail the F-35, a juggernaut of a program that apparently has enough political top cover to withstand any storm.

Part of that protection comes from the jaw-dropping amounts of money at stake. The Pentagon intends to spend roughly $399 billion to develop and buy 2,443 of the planes. However, over the course of the aircrafts' lifetimes, operating costs are expected to exceed $1 trillion. Lockheed has carefully hired suppliers and subcontractors in almost every state to ensure that virtually all senators and members of Congress have a stake in keeping the program -- and the jobs it has created -- in place.

"An upfront question with any program now is: How many congressional districts is it in?" said Thomas Christie, a former senior Pentagon acquisitions official.

Jim: "Providing weapons to Syrian rebels many of whom apparently are Al Qaeda?"Bob: "No, the other one.”

Jim: "The 2012 vote where 115% of all registered voters in some counties voted 100% for Obama?"Bob: "No, the other one.”

Jim: "The president's unconstitutional recess appointments in an attempt to circumvent the Senate's advise-and-consent role?"Bob: "No, the other one.”

Jim: "The State Department interfering with an Inspector General investigation on departmental sexual misconduct?"Bob: "No, the other one.”

Jim: "Clinton, the IRS, Clapper and Holder all lying to Congress?"Bob: "No, the other one.”

Jim: "The President using nearly $1 trillion dollars of stimulus money to fund his cronies?"Bob: "No, the other one”

Jim: "You mean Fast & Furious?"Bob: "No, the other one.”

Jim: "I give up! ... Oh wait, I think I got it! "You mean that 65 mi"llion low-information voters who don't pay taxes and get free stuff from taxpayers and stuck us again with the most pandering, corrupt administration in American history?"Bob: "THAT'S THE ONE!

In the last analysis, the individual person is responsible for living his own life and for 'finding himself.' If he persists in shifting his responsibility to somebody else, he fails to find out the meaning of his own existence.

Right...The zilly baztard haz to have someone to blame for lozing hiz country - if not the Kurds then the Israelis. Zo far Deuce's lengthy excerpted article iz the bezt analyziz I have zeen on the fool, Maliki and hiz Zhia militiaz. While the attention of the Condum Coalition waz diztracted by the harrowing battle of Tikrit, IZ captured tonz of potential WMD and a baze within 30 milez of Baghdad.

Hey, Alan Dershowitz, when are you going to start decrying this fiendish bastard and his murderous ways?

And how Alexander Solzhenitsyn, in his book, "Gulag Archipelago," wrote that in 1934 and 1935, Yagoda's thugs would go out an kidnap innocent people off the streets, and torture them till they died.

You know, just like your Shin Bet buds in Israel do now, in the 21st Century, to the Palestinians.

What's that?

You say that talk is VERBOTEN because it points out that the greatest mass murderers of the 20th Century were Jews?

And it gets in the way of telling more and more fabrications about the Holocaust™?

And that if people would learn that most of the mass murderers in the 20th Century were Jewish, then the Holocaust™ schtick wouldn't work?

And that people wouldn't be so cowed and intimidated by someone saying the word Holocaust™, since they would realize that the Holocaust™ is used to cover up Israel's crimes of ethnic cleansing and murder of the indigenous Palestinians?

And for asking questions about Jewish Mass Murderers, then I am an "Anti-Semite?"

Deuce ☂Wed Jul 09, 03:32:00 AM EDTWe all pay the price for the leaders we elect:

Tue Jul 01, 02:10:00 AM EDTThose young men were doomed when their so-called leaders and protectors flooded the occupied territories with thousands of angry young men looking for the three unfortunate boys.

Deuce,

Hamas was launching missiles into Israel long before the murders. I frankly see no correlation. Even if there were, that would not lessen the need for Israel to take action before some serious damage is done. Whether you and I dislike Mr. Netanyahu does not change the reality faced by Israel: a) absorb attacks or b) respond to attacks. The worry is that Netanyahu will manage to screw up a response for which there is enormous Israeli public support.

"Deuce ☂Wed Jul 09, 03:32:00 AM EDTWe all pay the price for the leaders we elect:

Tue Jul 01, 02:10:00 AM EDTThose young men were doomed when their so-called leaders and protectors flooded the occupied territories with thousands of angry young men looking for the three unfortunate boys. Now that they are dead, Netanyahu is all but guaranteeing that more young men and children will die on both sides."

"...The photographs of the destroyed churches and mosques that emerged last week were posted on a website which frequently carries official statements from ISIS. 'The elements of ISIS [have] controlled the mosque of the Prophet Younis in Mosul since they invaded the city. It is still held by them now'Ninevah official Zuhair Al-ChalabSome of them showed bulldozers plowing through walls, while others featured buildings being demolished by explosives in a cloud of smoke and rubble..."

Israeli army confiscates $3.5 million worth of Palestinian propertySubmitted by Charlotte Silver on Tue, 07/08/2014 - 09:58The Israeli army confiscated nearly $3.5 million worth of property and cash from Palestinians during its recent three-weeks long military incursion into the West Bank, under the pretense of searching for three Israeli teens who went missing on 12 June and whose bodies were found 30 June.

Since the beginning of the military assault, 830 Palestinians have been arrested and seven killed in the occupied West Bank. Nine have been killed in Israeli airstrikes in Gaza. Two more died from heart attacks suffered during an army raid or while being held at a checkpoint, and many dozens more have been injured. Israel is still bombarding Gaza with heavy airstrikes, and injuries and casualties are mounting.

On 7 July, the Euro-Mid Observer for Human Rights published a report compiling all incidents of confiscated private property and money. In addition to taking the equivalent of $370,000 in cash, the Israeli army seized 93 computers, as well as telephones, cars and buses worth a total value of $2.9 million.

The village of al-Araqib, a Bedouin community in the Naqab (Negev) desert in the south of present-day Israel, was razed to the ground by state authorities for the sixty-ninth time since July 2010 last week. This demolition marked the first time police destroyed homes erected within the cemetery area of the village.

At 9:30am on Thursday, 12 June, approximately 350 police officers and special forces encircled the village and rounded up inhabitants in the makeshift mosque. Homes were bulldozed to the ground in about three hours and the rubble cleared away by 4:30pm.

Police then forcibly entered the makeshift mosque, arresting seven Bedouin and Jewish Israeli activists, amongst them two minors. Authorities demolished the mosque’s minaret and then left.

"...The photographs of the destroyed churches and mosques that emerged last week were posted on a website which frequently carries official statements from ISIS. 'The elements of ISIS [have] controlled the mosque of the Prophet Younis in Mosul since they invaded the city. It is still held by them now'Ninevah official Zuhair Al-ChalabSome of them showed bulldozers plowing through walls, while others featured buildings being demolished by explosives in a cloud of smoke and rubble..."

Some have never consulted a map. The wanton destruction by IS crews has nothing to do with Jews or the Holy Land. It has nothing to do with Tamerlane or the Mongols; it is Muslims v other Muslims and Christians. In a delusional sort of way, Israel is the center of the universe to some. Nothing newsworthy can happen outside that stunted, sick view of the cosmos. Consequently, anti-Semitic entropy is the cause of all the world’s woes. Simply killing that butterfly off the Brazilian coast will prevent a hurricane somewhere – who knows where, who cares, just kill the Jew.

To a man of even rudimentary esthetic appreciation, an attack of the Louvre would be an attack on the patrimony of the West, held in trust by the French. Even the SS refused Hitler's order to raze Paris. Only a savage would fail to see the horrific unnaturalness of such a crime against humanity, while trying to find some reason to blame Jews for his unmitigatable savagery.

Kerry suggested that if peace talks failed violence would return. He was lambasted by all sides, some saying he was threatening and others that he was inviting the violence. Pure bullshit. The violence was inevitable no matter what happened with the talks.

There will be no peace between the two sides. Any peace the Palestinians could hope for would require a reconciliation between Hamas and Fatah. The current Israeli government won't accept talks with a government that includes Hamas. Nuff said.

Whereas, in the past there have been moderate Israeli governments that replaced the hardliners at times, that appears to be clearly in the past in the absence of some future extreme event. Demographic, political, and religious trends seem to point to right wing, hard line dominance for the foreseeable future.

Today's events in Israel are as predictable as that major storms will occasionally wash our east coast.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/france/10956636/Islamist-plot-to-blow-up-Eiffel-Tower-Louvre-and-nuclear-power-plant-foiled-say-French-police.htmlIslamist plot to blow up Eiffel Tower, Louvre and nuclear power plant foiled, say French police

"...Failing that, he suggested launching terror attacks on “the modest and poor French population” in markets or nightclubs, as well as police patrols.

In an apparent reference to the famed Avignon theatre festival, he also singled out 'cultural events that take place in the south of France in which thousands of Christians gather for a month. The main walkways become black with people and a simple grenade can injure dozens of people, not to mention a booby trapped device,' he said..."

Iron Dome intercepted three of the 7 rockets aimed by Hamas at the Dimona nuclear reactor, 43 km from the Gaza Strip, Wednesday. The other four landed on empty ground. Two more were blown up by Iron Dome over Rehovot and Yavneh in central Israel. A rocket aimed at Ashkelon fell short and broke up over the Gaza Strip.

Our Muslim friends are blatant: Kill Christians. How that plays into the Palestinian problem is a question begging an answer. Possibly, our Muslim friends have a far greater agenda than Jerusalem. I seem to recall that the taking of Rome was an objective. Rome is not Palestine or Jerusalem. The Pope is not the Chief Rabbi. It takes a fool of extraordinary talent to fail to see the game plan.

Iron Dome intercepted three of the 7 rockets aimed by Hamas at the Dimona nuclear reactor

Where they land may be of consequence at some point. Today, the point is that they are being fired at all. For this years' long violation of sovereignty, I blame successive Israeli governments. The very first incident should have brought the house down. Failure to act gave the impression to the world that Israel could be had, again. That was a mistake that will now cost dearly. Hamas must be stopped and it must be stopped now. No matter the mindless chatter of critics, Hamas must be rendered incapable of ever launching again.

Then the "War" would be over, and the NASI Princes of Judea will not allow that to happen.The "War" wil be extended into Lebanon, Syria, Iraq and Iran.

That is the "Plan", it has been written, Time and again.

You could take off the blinders, or not.Since your employer are those NASI Princes of Judea.

Israel Pays Students For Pro-Israeli Social Media Propaganda

The move was publicised in a statement from Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office, the Associated Press reported. Students will receive scholarships to "engage international audiences online" ...

A 115gr shot to the head will suffice and will simultaneously nullify collateral damage. As John K. Galbraith proved after WWII, bombing is of little/to none strategic value; hence, the fact that Germany's greatest productive year was 1944. Tactical successes win wars as Wellington proved in Spain and at Waterloo.

Israel has hard choices to make that will not endear it to the usual suspects. Interestingly, success has a thousand fathers, as Israel proved in Iraq and Syria. When you win, no matter how down and dirty, you can always say, "Sorry". See atomic warfare and Japan. Israel need not fear the French aircraft carrier. It also has no cause to fear Syria, Iraq, Egypt, Libya, Lebanon, or Jordan.

You prance around here like a buffoon talking about how much you admire the god mother, and how concerned you are about women's rights, and how we should all be considerate of and elevate the distaff side; yet, when one cracks light about your buffoonery you insult her with the most disgusting names you can conjure up. You hypocrisy is like NOW attacking the Little Sisters of the Poor. You are a crude rube.

Nobody wants to see their sister, wife or daughter selling her body in exchange for money. So how does it happen?

The answer to that difficult question lies in first realizing that there is very little choice involved in the process. Young women do not consciously choose a career that will involve repeated abuse. To understand the reality of these women's lives we must first recognize them for what they are - victims.

The sad truth is that the stories of these women often begin with sexual abuse at a young age. Many develop an unhealthy pattern of relationships involving exploitation whereby they use their sexuality to gain favor. Most enter into a line of work at a young age (14 is the national average) that provides them with a sense of self-value in the only way they know, selling their bodies.

Although the majority of prostitutes are Israeli citizens ...

Are these 14 year old girls sold into the sex trade, or do they sell themselves?

If it is the former, Israel is beaten, if it is the later, it is damned.Six of one, half dozen of the other

Rights groups say FCO claim records of flights in and out of Diego Garcia missing due to water damage 'smacks of cover-up'

The US provides obedience training to its poodle.

Watching Koskinen's testimony during the IRS hearings speaking of lost e-mails, Blair turns to Milliband and says, "Damn, why didn't we think of that". Milliband replies, "It's never too late to learn."

"The clear awareness of having been born into a losing struggle need not lead one into despair. I do not especially like the idea that one day I shall be tapped on the shoulder and informed, not that the party is over but that it is most assuredly going on—only henceforth in my absence."

Magnificent Ronald and the Founding Fathers of al Qaeda

“These gentlemen are the moral equivalents of America’s founding fathers.” — Ronald Reagan while introducing the Mujahideen leaders to media on the White house lawns (1985). During Reagan’s 8 years in power, the CIA secretly sent billions of dollars of military aid to the mujahedeen in Afghanistan in a US-supported jihad against the Soviet Union. We repeated the insanity with ISIS against Syria.